ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS A.A.'s Big Book Pages 1 -164 ...

1 ALCOHOLICS 's "Big Book" Pages 1 -164 Unofficial Large Print Ebook ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 1 of 703 BILL'S STORY Ch. 1 - Page 1 (Screen 11)THERE IS A SOLUTION Ch. 2 - Page 17 (Screen 80)MORE ABOUT ALCOHOLISM Ch. 3 - Page 30 (Screen 135) ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 2 of 703WE AGNOSTICS Ch. 4 - Page 44 (Screen 195)HOW IT WORKS Ch. 5 - Page 58 (Screen 254)INTO ACTION Ch. 6 - Page 72 (Screen 312) ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 3 of 703 WORKING WITH OTHERS Ch. 7 - Page 89 (Screen 383)TO WIVES Ch. 8 - Page 104 (Screen 446)THE family AFTERWARDS Ch. 9 - Page 122 (Screen 521) ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 4 of 703TO EMPLOYERS Ch. 10 - Page 136 (Screen 582)A VISION FOR YOU Ch. 11 - Page 151 (Screen 644) ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 5 of 703 WHOSE BOOK IS THIS?Potentially, anyone's -- in the PDF file is an Easy-Read Large PrintEbook created in 2009 by major1212 It displays the text of thefirst 164 Pages of the book "AlcoholicsAnonymous.

2 " These 164 Pages are in the Public Domain ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 6 of 703(free of copyright) in the Since Iadded various properties to the text inorder to create the derivative ebook, Ihave an (unregistered) copyright to it --that is, to the PDF file. You may read it, make exact copies of it,and give the copies away WITHIN , but you may NOT sell it. Anyonewho gets a copy has the same permission. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 7 of 703If you are not in the , DO NOT READTHIS EBOOK. To be safe, destroy , ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and The BigBook are registered trademarks of Services, Inc. I don't represent ALCOHOLICS ebook is not a product of AlcoholicsAnonymous. I make no money from thisebook. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 8 of 703My purpose is to make the text of the BigBook available to anyone in the ,however weak his or her ocular -- Major1212 March 18, 2009 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 9 of 703 HINTS FOR READINGIf the print is too small for you, email mefor a copy in a larger text "bookmark" whenever you close thebook, do this: In [Edit -> Preferences ->Documents] check "Restore last viewsettings when reopening documents.

3 "This book is best read without drinking. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 10 of 703[Page 1] Chapter One BILL'S STORYWar fever ran high in the New Englandtown to which we new, young officersfrom Plattsburg were assigned, and wewere flattered when the first citizenstook us to their homes, making us feelheroic. Here was love, applause, war;moments sublime with intervals hilarious. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 11 of 703I was part of life at last, and in the midstof the excitement I discovered liquor. Iforgot the strong warnings and theprejudices of my people concerningdrink. In time we sailed for "Over There."I was very lonely and again turned toalcohol. We landed in England. I visitedWinchester Cathedral. Much moved, Iwandered outside. My attention was ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 12 of 703caught by a doggerel on an oldtombstone: "Here lies a Hampshire GrenadierWho caught his deathDrinking cold small good soldier is ne'er forgotWhether he dieth by musketOr by pot.

4 "Ominous warning - which I failed to heed. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 13 of 703 Twenty-two, and a veteran of foreignwars, I went home at last. I fanciedmyself a leader, for had not the men ofmy battery given me a special token ofappreciation? My talent for leadership, Iimagined, would place me at the head ofvast enterprises which I would managewith the utmost assurance. [page 2] I took a night law course, and ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 14 of 703obtained employment as investigator fora surety company. The drive for successwas on. I'd prove to the world I wasimportant. My work took me about WallStreet and little by little I becameinterested in the market. Many peoplelost money - but some became very not I? I studied economics andbusiness as well as law. Potentialalcoholic that I was, I nearly failed mylaw course. At one of the finals I was too ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 15 of 703drunk to think or write.

5 Though mydrinking was not yet continuous, itdisturbed my wife. We had long talkswhen I would still her forebodings bytelling her that men of genius conceivedtheir best projects when drunk; that themost majestic constructions ofphilosophic thought were so derived. By the time I had completed the course, Iknew the law was not for me. The ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 16 of 703inviting maelstrom of Wall Street had mein its grip. Business and financial leaderswere my heroes. Out of this alloy of drinkand speculation, I commenced to forgethe weapon that one day would turn in itsflight like a boomerang and all but cut meto ribbons. Living modestly, my wife and Isaved $1,000. It went into certainsecurities, then cheap and ratherunpopular. I rightly imagined that theywould some day have a great rise. I failed ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 17 of 703to persuade my broker friends to send meout looking over factories andmanagements, but my wife and I decidedto go anyway.

6 I had developed a theorythat most people lost money in stocksthrough ignorance of markets. Idiscovered many more reasons later on. We gave up our positions and off weroared on a motorcycle, the sidecarstuffed with tent, blankets, a change of ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 18 of 703clothes, and three huge volumes of afinancial [page 3] reference service. Our friendsthought a lunacy commission should beappointed. Perhaps they were right. I hadhad some success at speculation, so wehad a little money, but we once workedon a farm for a month to avoid drawingon our small capital. That was the lasthonest manual labor on my part for many ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 19 of 703a day. We covered the whole easternUnited States in a year. At the end of it,my reports to Wall Street procured me aposition there and the use of a largeexpense account. The exercise of anoption brought in more money, leaving uswith a profit of several thousand dollarsfor that year.

7 For the next few years fortune threwmoney and applause my way. I had ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 20 of 703arrived. My judgment and ideas werefollowed by many to the tune of papermillions. The great boom of the latetwenties was seething and swelling. Drinkwas taking an important and exhilaratingpart in my life. There was loud talk in thejazz places uptown. Everyone spent inthousands and chattered in could scoff and be damned. Imade a host of fair-weather friends. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 21 of 703My drinking assumed more seriousproportions, continuing all day andalmost every night. The remonstrances ofmy friends terminated in a row and Ibecame a lone wolf. There were manyunhappy scenes in our sumptuousapartment. There had been no realinfidelity, for loyalty to my wife, helpedat times by extreme drunkenness, keptme out of those scrapes. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 22 of 703In 1929 I contracted golf fever.

8 We wentat once to the country, my wife toapplaud while I started out to overtakeWalter Hagen. Liquor caught up with memuch faster than I came up behindWalter. I began to be jittery in themorning. Golf permitted drinking [page 4] every day and every night. Itwas fun to carom around the exclusivecourse which had inspired such awe in ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 23 of 703me as a lad. I acquired the impeccablecoat of tan one sees upon the local banker watched me whirl fatchecks in and out of his till with amusedskepticism. Abruptly in October 1929 hell broke looseon the New York stock exchange. Afterone of those days of inferno, I wobbledfrom a hotel bar to a brokerage office. Itwas eight o'clock - five hours after the ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 24 of 703market closed. The ticker still clattered. Iwas staring at an inch of the tape whichbore the inscription XYZ-32. It had been52 that morning. I was finished and sowere many friends.

9 The papers reportedmen jumping to death from the towers ofHigh Finance. That disgusted me. I wouldnot jump. I went back to the bar. Myfriends had dropped several million sinceten o'clock - so what? Tomorrow wasanother day. As I drank, the old fierce ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 25 of 703determination to win came back. Next morning I telephoned a friend inMontreal. He had plenty of money leftand thought I had better go to Canada. Bythe following spring we were living in ouraccustomed style. I felt like Napoleonreturning from Elba. No St. Helena forme! But drinking caught up with me againand my generous friend had to let me time we stayed broke. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 26 of 703We went to live with my wife's parents. Ifound a job; then lost it as the result of abrawl with a taxi driver. Mercifully, noone could guess that I was to have no realemployment for five years, or hardlydraw a sober breath.

10 My wife began towork in a department store, coming homeexhausted to find me drunk. [page 5] I became an unwelcome ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 27 of 703hanger-on at brokerage places. Liquor ceased to be a luxury; it became anecessity. "Bathtub" gin, two bottles aday, and often three, got to be a small deal would net a fewhundred dollars, and I would pay my billsat the bars and delicatessens. This wenton endlessly, and I began to waken veryearly in the morning shaking violently. Atumbler full of gin followed by half a ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 28 of 703dozen bottles of beer would be requiredif I were to eat any , I still thought I couldcontrol the situation, and there wereperiods of sobriety which renewed mywife's hope. Gradually things got worse. The housewas taken over by the mortgage holder,my mother-in-law died, my wife andfather-in-law became ill. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Screen 29 of 703 Then I got a promising businessopportunity.